.uk domains - Good idea?

[beth]

Hello all,

I am a newbie to the site, so please bear with me. I am trying to get some data on how popular domains that end in .uk are. I have been trying to dig around the Internet to try and find statistics on how many of these are registered or in use and how this compares with the .com popularity and how many of those are registered and in use. I have not been able to find any really good sites with some statistics, and this is just an interest I am new to and trying to be more knowledgeable on.

Also, I am trying to dig up to some info such as ppc prices in the uk and how this compares with US.

Thanks, any info will be helpful!!

 

[Mateja]

Hey beth,

I'm sorry i can't really answer many of your questions, but as for the main question, I think if you live in the UK they are a good idea, i mean there are a lot of small businessmen in the UK that haven't embraced the internet but if convinced in the right way, would be interested in a domain that suits their business name/type.

Where i am at the moment with the people i know, i am in touch with a fair few small business owners as friends and a lot of them are still being convinced by me that the internet is the way to go, and how it would benefit them. I mean its a sales pitch, but im doing it for them as a friend rather for the money. So i know UK-based buyers do exist.

 

[SharkBite]

.co.uk has resale value - other .uk names are next to worthless as they're not very widely recognised even within the UK. Except for UK divisions of multinational companies and one or two major sites like bbc.co.uk, UK internet users tend to prefer the .com name, which means that the .co.uk market is nowhere near the size of the .de market in Germany. Keyword terms are still good, as are terms which are suitable for UK small businesses.

The lower end of the market is virtually nonexistant because of the cumbersome and expensive transfer process - so no £20-50 firesales for average quality names.

 

[andersdb]

You might find this article at Sedo will answer some of your questions.

http://www.sedo.com/newsletter/us/nl_september2004_online.html#link1

 

[charlie_uk]

As above the only domain extension of value would be the "co.uk"

In the same way a french person perhaps would guess at a .fr name i suppose the uk domains are 99% of interest to UK based users. The .coms are still regarded as the main domain for general topics here in the UK. This more extensive target audience will always mean that the .coms have more traffic and therefore you'd generate more from your PPC. I have a portfolio of both Uk and coms and the coms always rise to the top by the end of the month apart from a few that already have traffic or high links.

The main problem is that good names are snapped up by a small collection of dropcatchers who have well tailored scripts. It seems that the Uk name administration is not particularly good and certain loop holes have been exploited. Until this changes I would not consider making the sales of UK domains your primary business.